


A Life in Bits

by whizzingfizbee



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-16
Updated: 2013-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:45:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/641000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whizzingfizbee/pseuds/whizzingfizbee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minutes become hours, hours become days, days become years, and years become seconds. A collection of Arthur/Eames prompts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life in Bits

*******

_**1.)** Write ten lines of dialogue between two characters who had drunken sex last night and are not tal_ _king about it. Ever._

_“Out.”_

“And good morning to you too.”

“Eames, get out, now.”

“Maybe it was the scotch, but you seemed much more fetching last night, Arthur.”

“I don’t ever want to hear you mention last night ever again...ever.”

“Oh come now darling, it can’t have been that bad.”

“Look Eames I have a Glock in the top drawer so I suggest you make your exit within the next 90 seconds because with this hangover I can’t guarantee your death will be painlessly instantaneous.”

“...Can I at least put my pants back on first?”

_**2.)**  Write a scene in four sentences in which two characters bond over something that would seem trivial to a passerby._

Eames always makes some kind of noise when he approaches Arthur from behind; a little clearing of the throat or unnecessarily heavy footsteps.

Arthur knows it’s because Eames knows the kind of faded echoes the military leaves behind; what it can do to a man’s nerves.

Arthur likes to lave hot, open-mouthed kisses over the burn mark seared across Eames’s left shoulder.

He knows it’s because Eames knows that not all scars are visible.

 

_**3.)**  Write seven sentences from the perspective of a passerby witnessing Day Two's scene_.

 

On her third day into the job Ariadne makes the mistake of walking up behind Arthur and tapping him on the shoulder while he’s got his iPod headphones in.

She feels tension steel through his neck and shoulders almost immediately, and the look in his eye when he turns around is equal parts caged animal and cold killer.

Honestly, it scares the crap out of her.

“You have to be careful around Arthur,” Cobb says offhandedly as he mulls over magazine articles and newspaper clippings, “He’s always been a bit jumpy from the army.”

Ariadne nods absently and watches as Eames shuffles up to Arthur’s left side, knee accidently knocking against the wooden desk as he approaches.

Arthur doesn’t look up from his work, but there’s an easiness to the way Eames casually drapes an elbow over his shoulder.

There’s no flinch, no wide-eyed glare; only trust.

 

_**4.)**  Write a character's reaction to someone's love confession in one sentence._

Eames doesn’t know quite what to say to Arthur’s drawn, nervous-looking face, but he suddenly knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that 1.) Arthur is the most confusing creature he has ever encountered, and 2.) he needs this more than he has ever needed anything in his entire life.

_**5.)** Write a scene in eight sentences in which someone's going through his/her version of "It's a Wonderful Life."_

 

Arthur doesn’t dream often anymore, but when he does it’s so vivid that it leaves him panting and scrambling for the familiar weight of his die.

He dreams of Mal, and he feels useless and powerless and pathetic, like a child.

He dreams of his mother sometimes too, always drunk, always unhappy and how he’d hide behind curtains when she called out to him.

He even dreams of Cobb now and then, the old Cobb, the broken Cobb, and how Arthur could only offer to arrange the funeral and how he’d stiffened and froze the one time Cobb tried to hug him.

But then again he also dreams of Eames a lot; the Eames from five years ago, detached, alone, shuffling from back alley to back alley because there was nothing to make him stay, and the Eames from two nights ago, who whispered softly into his shoulder blade and made slightly burnt pancakes the next morning.

Arthur shakes awake and he’s pressing his cell phone to his ear before he even realizes he’s dialed a number.

“I’m glad I met you,” he whispers before Eames has a chance to say anything.

“Me too, love,” Eames mumbles back and Arthur can hear confusion and sleepy affection, “Me too.”

 

_**6.)** Write a scene in six sentences in which a character is searching for someone in the last moments of the end of the world._

The metal water tower groans and tips over, flooding the unstable rooftop with ice cold water that rushes and roars over the guard rail, dousing the crumbling city below, and still Arthur waits.

The door to the stairwell swings open, and Eames strolls over to stand next to Arthur, loafers skimming the surface of puddles, looking at ease except for the tightened corner of his mouth and his frantic eyes.

“Thought I wouldn’t be able to find you,” he says.

_I was scared you’d be gone_ is what Arthur hears.

Arthur shrugs because he waited and of course he waited and he’d keep on waiting until the world explodes (which probably isn’t saying much right now, but still).

The sky darkens and an apartment building across the street collapses to the ground, floor by floor, and Eames’s breath puffs hot against his neck and Arthur can’t even be bothered to check his totem because he really doesn’t care (and because his hands are busy wrapping themselves around Eames).

 

_**Day Seven:** Write a breakup scene in three sentences without giving the reason for it or using dialogue._

Eames takes the toaster and alarm clock and his clothes and the dog and the picture of the two of them riding the tea cups at Coney Island.

Arthur doesn’t remember much of his apartment before Eames came and took it over and filled it up like projections filling an empty dreamspace.

Even so, he’s pretty sure it wasn’t this fucking lonely.

 

_**Day Eight:** Write two characters' second kiss in two sentences._

The second kiss feels like the last.

There are projections banging ferociously at the flimsy barricaded door, and even though Eames knows it’s just a dream and they’ll wake up with all the time in the world, it all feels so real, and he can’t stop the desperation from seeping out through the points where his body meets Arthur’s.

_**9.)** Write one sentence each for the following five prompts._

**Well, did he or didn't he?**

 

Ariadne hates Arthur’s poker face because it makes it impossible to tell how his date with Eames went last night.

 

**Let the world end tonight. Tomorrow I'll build you a new one.**

The window of the café shatters into pinpricks of glass, peppering Arthur’s half-gone espresso and the blueberry muffin they’re sharing and Eames can only grin and laugh, even as the projections start to drag him away.

**Sociopath**

Lies fall from Eames’s mouth with grace and fluidity because they’re easy and they’re fun and because he’s never seen a reason to tell the truth before (and because Arthur eyes look so pretty tinged with red and betrayal).

 

**Alive**

 

One time Arthur gets trapped in a burning apartment room and when he wakes up it takes Eames hours to assure him that his skin isn’t charred black, that his lungs aren’t clogged with smoke, that his heart is still beating in his chest.

 

**Are we dating?**

 

Arthur doesn’t realize that he and Eames are living together until everything (the paisley shirts, the bright red toothbrush, the vinyl Beatles records, Eames) is gone.

****

**_10.)_ ** _Use these lyrics as a prompt: "There's only now/There's only here/Give in to love/Or live in fear" ("Another Day" from RENT) and write a story in nine sentences._

Minutes become hours, hours become days, days become years, and years become seconds 

Arthur bends and shapes the world around him into complicated patterns of swirling mass and color.

He doesn’t think about Cobb or Ariadne or reality or Eames, and if he doesn’t think about it for long enough then it doesn’t exist.

Only Arthur exists; only his world and nothing else.

Except it’s kind of hard to believe that it doesn’t exist when it’s there and in front of you and staring at you with tired green eyes.

“I’m here for you, darling,” Eames says, off-kilter grin twisting his features, “I’m here and we’re leaving.”

Suddenly they’re on a cliff and the wind is rushing past and Arthur feels fear race through him as sharp as a bullet.

Eames presses a kiss to Arthur’s knuckles and whispers, “Go on, then, jump.”

And Arthur wants it all to exist again, Cobb and Ariadne and Eames, god especially Eames, so he closes his eyes and falls.

 

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, I have no recollection whatsoever of where I found these prompts, but the file was on my computer, and I liked some of them quite a bit, so I decided to upload it anyway.


End file.
